I tried playing classical guitar in the dark when the power went out on Friday (for four freaking hours!). It took a fair bit of practice and adjustment but once I was in the zone, I did ok with the Bach E minor Bourée and E major Gavotte en rondeaux and Villa-Lobos Etude 1 (all from memory of course since I couldn’t read sheet music in the dark).

The main surprising thing was that it wasn’t much harder to make jumps on the fretboard – while my reflex is to look at my left hand and unconsciously tense up a bit when I need to do this, I seem to have enough of a physical sense for where fret positions are that it’s unnecessary; when playing the next day, I was able to do this with greater relaxation. Some teachers encourage blindfolded practice as a practising technique and I can see why – it allows you to learn how much you can trust muscle memory.